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"First documentary on one of the most gifted and intellectually provocative authors of modern American literature ... presents the first scenes ever filmed from Ellison's landmark novel, Invisible man"--Container.

Abstract:

"First documentary on one of the most gifted and intellectually provocative authors of modern American literature ... presents the first scenes ever filmed from Ellison's landmark novel, Invisible man"--Container.

Reviews

Ralph Ellison, an American Journey, is an engagingly, rich documentary chronicling the life and artistic work of Ralph Waldo Ellison. The documentary begins with Lewis and Ida Ellisonâs migration from Tennessee to Oklahoma shortly after it achieved statehood. Ellison was born in Oklahoma...Read more...

Ralph Ellison, an American Journey, is an engagingly, rich documentary chronicling the life and artistic work of Ralph Waldo Ellison. The documentary begins with Lewis and Ida Ellisonâs migration from Tennessee to Oklahoma shortly after it achieved statehood. Ellison was born in Oklahoma in 1914 and both the Ellison family and the family business flourished in a pre-segregated Oklahoma until the sudden death of Ellisonâs father in 1917. The previously well-to-do Ellison family spiraled into an âinvisible povertyâ as narrator Andre Braugher recounts. Ellison, then 3 years old, would develop a stammer that would resurface in 1967 after a fire destroyed his summer home and the bulk of recent work on an unfinished second novel.

Braugherâs carefully placed narrations and black and white images of a very young Ellison reveal him to be a gifted young student and talented musician despite his impoverished surroundings. Walks with his brother and mother through wealthy white neighborhoods served as âglimpses of a better lifeâ and would fuel Ellisonâs dreams of becoming a renaissance man. Renaissance men were exemplified by the early jazz greats that frequented the thriving black enclave in the âDeep Deuceâ section of Oklahoma City in the 1920s. Dramatizations of Ellison hopping a freight train to claim a music scholarship at Tuskegee Institute and additional images of Ellison in his early âJoe Collegeâ days portray him as a voracious reader mesmerized by the imagery in T.S. Eliotâs writings. Ellisonâs creative interests quickly turned from music to modern fiction and writing but he would continue to make connections between the imagery in jazz music and writing throughout his life.

Ellisonâs growth as a writer is fleshed out in recent interviews with such cultural luminaries such as Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Terrence Rafferty and others. West and others discuss the significance of Ellisonâs friendship with Langston Hughes and mentor Richard Wright and the several yearsâ work and life experience that culminated in the publication of Ellisonâs seminal and best-selling novel Invisible Man in 1952. They also comment on the high standard set by Ellison in the character development of blacks in modern literature. Braugher describes Ellisonâs writing as really revealing âthe complexity and richness of everyday black life.â In an interview, Clyde Taylor, cultural historian and professor at NYU saw Ellisonâs Invisible Man as the first to show that âany life can be given intense profound examinationâ and that Ellison could âdo with black life, what Homer did for Greek life or Joyce did for Irish life.â Ellisonâs alliance with what Braugher refers to as the âEurocentric literary mainstreamâ and his penchant for characters that transcended their often, dire stations in a racist society (read not what popular black protest literature favored during this time), drew critics from white progressives. It also drew attention to the growing generational rift between Ellison and the Black Nationalists and the Black Arts Movement in the sixties and early seventies. In response to the growing Black Nationalist movement in the sixties, Ellison reportedly said âit was hard to hold a pen with a clenched fist.â Both West and Ellison critic Amiri Baraka share enlightening views on this contentious period in American history.

The documentary fast forwards through Ellisonâs work as an educator, leaving us wondering. It would have been wonderful to hear from former students that encountered Ellison during this twenty year period. Weâre left to speculate as to the relevance of his work as an educator in the later part of his career. The documentary quickly rebounds with Toni Morrisonâs stirring reading of Ellisonâs posthumously released second novel, Juneteenth, in 1999.

This is an extremely fascinating, intimate look at one of Americaâs most provocative writers of the Twentieth century. This documentary is a good starting point for further study and discussion among advanced high school and college students of American literature.

Ralph Waldo Ellison, named after author-poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, is most famous for his 1953 National Book Award-winning novel <i>Invisible Life</i>. Many readers and critics believed <i>Invisible Life </i>not âBlack enoughâ at the time of its publication, totally misunderstanding...Read more...

Ralph Waldo Ellison, named after author-poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, is most famous for his 1953 National Book Award-winning novel Invisible Life. Many readers and critics believed Invisible Life not âBlack enoughâ at the time of its publication, totally misunderstanding the motivation and purpose for such a novel. Ellison proved that âthat you could do with Black life what Homer did with Greek lifeâ by choosing âsophisticated depictions of black life and culture.â

Ellisonâs passion was music, especially the Blues. After accepting a music scholarship to attend Tuskegee Institute, Ellison planned to become a composer so that he could write a symphony based on the Blues. Within his junior year of college, Ellison discovered his soul mate - literature - after reading T.S. Eliotâs The Wasteland. Making the decision to change his major to English thereby resigning his scholarship, Ellison went to New York City to earn money to pay for his last year at Tuskegee. While in New York City, Ellison met Richard Wright, who was a mentor to Ellison, through Langston Hughes. Ellison never returned to Tuskegee. He instead participated in the Federal Writers' Project and began publishing.

Narrated by Andre Braugher, Ralph Ellison: An American Journey showcases the first scenes adapted from the text of Invisible Man with special appearances by John Amos, Paul Benjamin, and Jacques C. Smith as the Invisible Man. This documentary packs much in a small package. This video undertakes the very complex and misunderstood writer by successfully tracing his life and career. Timely photographs, interview footage, and commentary by a range of intellectuals, such as: Farah Griffin and Robert OâMeally of Columbia University, Cornel West of Harvard University, and Lawrence Jackson â Ellison Biographer.

The video is of good technical quality. Ralph Ellison: An American Journey can be used to support a variety of subject areas across the disciplines, such as: African American Studies, American Studies, Literature, and Popular Culture. School, public, and academic library collections, alike will be enhanced by this purchase. It is highly recommended..